


At Long Last, A Kiss

by Solemnly_Swear (Fitzsimmonsx)



Category: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Genre: Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-16 18:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18526738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fitzsimmonsx/pseuds/Solemnly_Swear
Summary: The book thief and her best friend sit in a tree.(AU where everyone lives) (one-shot)





	At Long Last, A Kiss

A shoe clips Liesel on the side of the head. “ _Schiesse_ ,” she hisses. “Watch yourself, _Saukerl_.”

An apologetic silence emanates from the lemon-haired boy, along with a not-so-apologetic reply. “Well, slow down. I can only go so fast, and I’m the one holding the bag.”

Liesel snorts without humor. “Only because you kept insisting!”

There is silence yet again, but Rudy climbs faster, bag swinging precariously in his grasp. He may be stupid, but even he knows not to invite the wrath of Liesel Meminger.

His shoes scrape against the tree bark before finding placement in the familiar footholds, and Liesel frowns at their threadbare state. His left shoe has several holes in its sole, and the other is on its way to a similar fate. Liesel herself is not much better off- the clothing she is wearing barely shields her from the sharp bite of the wind- but she knows the Steiners have had even more trouble.

 

After the war had come to an end, Alex Steiner had finally returned home. Himmel Street was, in many ways, just the same as he had left it, but the man himself had changed. His hands were broken. The war had taken many things from many people, but Liesel found this to be particularly cruel. The man who had once deftly tailored suits and mended garments could no longer lift his hand without it shaking. It had been the mending, Alex explained. They had been desperate. It was clear that they were losing and in a last burst of effort, they had all been worked to the point of breaking.

Liesel had taken one look at the contained fire in Rudy’s eyes and nudged him sharply. “Tonight?” she mouthed, and he nodded tightly.

“Tonight,” he had mouthed back, and there was a promise in his eyes. The Fuhrer had done this, and if he couldn’t be made to pay, someone else would.

That night, of course, had ended in frustration and a special kind of weariness. There was no longer any comfort to be found in stealing. Liesel supposed it was part of growing up, but, looking into her best friend’s eyes, she felt a pang of regret. It seemed like only days ago that Rudy had gotten caught on the farmer’s fence, or Liesel had slipped into Ilsa Hermann’s library in socked feet. Where had those days gone?

Liesel knew the answer, of course, even then. But still, the words looped through her head, furrowing her eyebrows and weighing on her chest.

The book thief had taken a breath, pushing the words off and away, and turned to her best friend.

“I bet you I can beat you to the top,” she said, gesturing to a large tree off the side of the road.

Rudy scoffed. “What do you have to bet, _Saumensch_?” But a familiar sparkle made its way into his eyes and a grin pulled at the corners of his mouth.

“How about your apple?” Liesel suggested, grabbing it from his hand and racing towards the tree.

A startled laugh broke out of him, and he grinned at last. “I’ll get that back, just you wait!” The worries of the day lifted off his shoulders, if just for a moment, and the book thief and her best friend sat side by side at the top of the tree for hours.

 _Perhaps_ , Liesel had thought, _growing_ _up_ _isn’t_ _so_ _bad_.

 

The tree is a steadying presence in the next several years. Liesel and Rudy make only a few more halfhearted attempts before abandoning stealing altogether- Liesel doesn’t share her thoughts, but Rudy seems to come to the same conclusion on his own. The tree, however, has a certain perpetuality about it. The bark yields to create smooth footholds where Rudy and Liesel climb, and the branches remain sturdy and unbroken even in the wildest of storms.

Today is a normal day for the three of them; the man, the woman, and the tree now sit in a comfortable silence after the climb. Their legs swing lazily, absently. Rudy shifts to open the bag, now resting in his lap, and nudges Liesel.

“Candy?” He offers, smiling down at the bag. Liesel detects a hint of wistfulness. She knows what is going through his mind; she, too, remembers the shock in Frau Diller’s smile and the triumph of the mixed candy. This treat is not from Frau Diller, of course- the woman had moved away not long after the defeat of her precious Fuhrer. But the ghost of the day hovers over the two of them, warm fingers pressing into their shoulders.

“ _Saukerl_ ,” Liesel groans when she reaches for the proffered candy and he holds it above his head.

He laughs as she lunges for it, but then his glee turns to alarm as the world tilts around her. She’s falling. She’s come close before, but at some point, it has become a distant possibility. The stability of the tree and the comfort of their time there have softened the danger, rounded the sharp edges. Her eyes widen in surprise and she grasps at empty air-

Rudy grabs her arm quickly, and her body is arrested mid-fall. He hauls her back into a sitting position, steadying her by the shoulders.

Liesel finally takes a breath. “ _Gottverdammt_ ,” she hisses, letting the breath leak out of her unsteadily. She turns on Rudy, heart beating wildly. “ _Arschloch_. You almost got me killed! Don’t-“

Her words cut off at how close he is, and then her heart is pounding for a different reason altogether. He is pale, though, and his grasp on her arm is almost painfully tight.

“Let go,” she says weakly. “I’m fine.”

His eyes flicker to where his hand grasps her arm, and he jolts as if he hasn’t noticed it. When he pulls it away, it shakes.

“- _scheisse_ ,” he says miserably. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m fine,” she repeats, taking a deep breath.Then realization dawns on her as he looks at Rudy’s hands where they shake, held together tightly, on his lap.

“Where’s the candy?” she asks.

He looks around, as if coming out of a trance, and Liesel snorts when she sees the bag far below them, a white smear against the dark green of the grass. Inexplicably, Liesel starts to laugh, terror fading into wild amusement, and Rudy eventually joins in.

She gasps for breath, holding her aching sides, and leans against Rudy as if she can no longer hold herself up.

He wraps an arm around her and she relaxes, eyes still caught on the bag below them.

“I forgot,” she says slowly. “I forgot how quick it was. How Death can be there in a second.”

She feels Rudy sigh against her and shift slightly. “You’re fine,” he says after a while, holding her tighter. The casual embrace is less so, now, but Liesel doesn’t mind it. It makes her feel safer, more alive.

They stay silent for a while, and she knows both of them are thinking of those that met Death and didn’t escape. Liesel’s brother and his hacking cough. The soldier in the plane. The Jews in the parades and at the concentration camps.

“Do you think we’ll see them again?” This time, it’s Rudy who has broken the silence.

Liesel, with all her words, simply nods and sits up to look him in the eyes. “Yes, I think we will.”

She looks at him, the boy who has turned into a man. He still has the lemon-colored hair and the blue eyes, and he’s still her best friend. He’s kind and brave and someone that she is proud to know. Inexplicable fondness wells up inside her, and she reaches her hand over to touch the side of his face and then rest there- he regards her with a solemn gaze.

In the fading light, at the top of their tree, Liesel leans closer and presses her lips to Rudy’s. He tastes sweet, like candy, and he stops breathing entirely for a moment before sliding a hand into her hair, uncharacteristically shy.

She smiles into his lips, and he smiles back, and Rudy Steiner has at last gotten his long-awaited kiss from the book thief.


End file.
